A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 eBook

[16] Even so lately as Captain Krusenstern’s
visit, the number of horned
cattle at Saint Peter and
Saint Paul’s amounted to no more than ten
cows and as many young heifers;
of course, he remarks, there was no
butter, and very little milk.
But it is his opinion, that it would be
extremely easy to support
some hundred head there, as the place
abounds in the finest grass.
Elsewhere he informs us, that it is
calculated there are about
six hundred cattle in the whole of
Kamtschatka; a number which,
for obvious reasons, he thinks may and
ought to be increased.—­E.

[17] Extraordinary as this may appear, Krascheninikoff,
whose account of
Kamtschatka, from every thing
that I saw, and had an opportunity of
comparing it with, seems to
me to deserve entire credit, and whose
authority I shall, therefore,
frequently have recourse to, relates
instances of this kind that
are much more surprising. “Travelling
parties,” says he, “are
often overtaken with dreadful storms of snow,
on the approach of which they
drive with the utmost precipitation into
the nearest wood, and there
are obliged to stay till the tempest,
which frequently lasts six
or seven days, is over; the dogs remaining
all this while quiet and inoffensive;
except that sometimes, when
prest by hunger, they will
devour the reins and the other leathern
parts of the harness.”—­History
and Description of Kamtschatka, by
Krascheninikof.

[18] Captain King does not seem to have heard or inferred
any thing as to
the danger usually encountered
in the summer excursions on the river,
from the nature of the vessels
employed. This, according to
Krusenstern, infinitely more
resembles a trough than a boat, being, in
fact, the hollow trunk of
a tree, and exceedingly apt to be upset by
the rapidity of the stream.
Thus, he says, scarcely a year passes in
which several people are not
drowned, both in the Kamtschatka river
and the Awatscha; a serious
loss any where, no doubt; but in this
country, where population
is so scanty, and so uncertain, incomparably
more important in a political
point of view.—­E.

[19] On this occasion Major Behm permitted us to examine
all the maps and
charts that were in his possession.
Those relating to the peninsula of
the Tschutski, were made in
conformity to the information collected by
Plenishner, between the years
1760 and 1770. As the charts of
Plenishner were afterwards
made use of, according to Mr Coxe, in the
compilation of the General
Map of Russia, published by the Academy in
1776, it may be necessary
to observe, that we found them exceedingly
erroneous; and that the compilers
of the General Map seem to have been
led into some mistakes on
his authority. Those in which the islands on
the coast of America were
laid down, we found to contain nothing new,
and to be much less accurate
than those we saw at Oonalashka.